KK - 'Fermentasaurus' conical PET fermenter

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KK own the rights to fermetasaurus and Robobrew but I did notice a lack of fermentasauri at KK yesterday, each time I go in I like to try and get my hand in that hole in the top.
They are exporting a lot maybe not keeping up with demand.
 
Went to Keg King this morning, and ordered one from Yuri. They don't have it in the store but can get one from the factory nearby. Apparently, they said it is without the packaging box (shortage from factory in China), but all items are available in the plastic bag.
 
Droopy Brew said:
Best way to purge the kegs is to fill one to the brim with starsan/idophor. Hook the gas to the keg and then out post to outpost transfer line to another empty keg. You end up with a keg and your transfer line sanitised and completely purged with CO2. I do double batches so need 3 kegs- 1 purged into 2 purged into 3. The 3rd keg is then sealed and used for the next batch.
Make sure when hooking up your outpost line to the pressure fermenter that the pressure inside the fermenter is greater than in the kegs to avoid blow back.
Once hooked up, I connect my spunding valve to the recieving keg and set to allow CO2 to flow out as the liquid fills the keg. This also allows control of the fill rate.
Click to expand...


I like your way of filling the kegs. Unfortunately I use gelatine and don't have a beer filter. I can only put gelatine in a CO2 purged keg.
 
Paid $129 for the Fermentasauraus yesterday.
Pick up the pressure kit and second bottle too.
Now I need a spunding valve.
 
I'm not sure which point 4 you are talking about. Connecting the gas lines together or connecting the liquid line and it having some beer pushed into it? It works just as good if you equalise the pressure in each keg, connect the two gas lines to ensure this. Connect the liquid lines to top keg then bottom. If it hasn't flowed, then disconnect the bottom gas disconnect, pull on the PRV for a short burst and watch the liquid line. It should fill with beer and flow to the bottom keg. Then reconnect the gas disconnect to the bottom keg so the gas has a way out. Robert's your mothers brother.

It's a siphon, so yes you will need the last of the liquid in the keg being transferred from, higher than the top of the keg being transferred too. If it's only slightly higher it will only work until the liquid levels equalise in height and not work any further.
 
Jack of all biers said:
I'm not sure which point 4 you are talking about. Connecting the gas lines together or connecting the liquid line and it having some beer pushed into it? It works just as good if you equalise the pressure in each keg, connect the two gas lines to ensure this. Connect the liquid lines to top keg then bottom. If it hasn't flowed, then disconnect the bottom gas disconnect, pull on the PRV for a short burst and watch the liquid line. It should fill with beer and flow to the bottom keg. Then reconnect the gas disconnect to the bottom keg so the gas has a way out. Robert's your mothers brother.

It's a siphon, so yes you will need the last of the liquid in the keg being transferred from, higher than the top of the keg being transferred too. If it's only slightly higher it will only work until the liquid levels equalise in height and not work any further.
Click to expand...


post 4 is what i was referring to, it didn't do any transfer for me (I have used this method previously from Keg to Keg with no issues) just wondering if this is how people fill kegs from there pressurized fermenter ?

As you described this one is what I was referring to https://aussiehomebrewer.com/threads/keg-transfer-made-easy.16907/
 
I just used my fermasaurus for the first time, and stripped the pressure lid for a clean, but found the o-ring inside the beer post was squeezed out and trapped round the spring. I re-assembled it and then pulled it back apart only to find it was exactly the same. The springs seem much stronger than those in my kegs, so that might not be helping, but I think the main reason is the size of the chamfer in the top of where the o-ring sits, If you look at both chamfers you'll see the one on the right is smaller than the other one, and that one was ok. We have a small lathe at work, and I could turn a larger chamfer, that I think will fix it, but I don't want to ruin my nice new equipment, so I thought I'd see what others think about it, and if anyone else has experienced the same thing. I didn't ferment under pressure, and only gassed it to 20psi for cold crash, so I haven't over pressurized it or anything.
fermentasaurus-connects.JPG
sure lid for a clean
 
it turns out that it was too strong a spring rate that was causing it.
I swapped all the parts over, on to both posts, in turn and nothing seemed to help, so I fed the springs onto a 6mm bolt, and spun the outer diameter down on the side of my off hand grinder so the shape of the wire was "D" shaped, down to about half what it was, this made the springs much softer, and now its fine.
The valves are now still a bit stiffer than stock corny keg valve's but the O-rings no longer get pushed out.
You could always change them with corny springs if you get this problem, but I'd suggest the stock fermentasaurus springs should be made thinner by keg king.
 
Howdy.

For those who use the Fermentasaurus in a chamber, I thought I'd let you know that you can modify the lid to add a Thermowell. I personally find the thermowell preferable to having the probe on the outside, so I've modified the pressure lid and have been able to still do pressure ferments with no loss of pressure.

Essentially I drilled a hole in the lid, added a big enough grommet and then put the thermowell through. I've pressure tested and have had no leaks.

More details can be found here:
http://www.overengineeredbrewing.com/2018/02/fermentasaurus-thermowell-and-pressure-ferments/
 
Moog said:
I'd suggest the stock fermentasaurus springs should be made thinner by keg king.
Click to expand...
Agree, and also those same replacement springs supplied in keg repair kits - compared to the original Corny's, they're an absolute overkill.
 
^ ^ yeah Ive used the new spirngs on kegs aftwr buying 6 of them, they are not the right size spring and cause the gas or beer to leak.
 
Hi all, I have a Fermentasaurus on loan from my brother so I can try before I buy. I've got an XPA in there at the moment I pitched on Saturday (three days old now) but I've noticed I'm getting a lot of yeast/trub - from the 5L mark down it's looking quite white I'm not sure if it's just sticking to the sides or if this is all cake (pic attached, I dumped that first bottle last night)..

How often roughly should I be collecting/dumping through the little bottles? At which point ideally should I be collecting for yeast harvesting? It's a bit different than my old plastic fermenter which I'd just keep everything in for two weeks and then transfer to my second FV for bottling. I'm assuming I have to keep dumping otherwise when I get to bottling I'm going to struggle getting a good clear flow going..
 

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Schikitar said:
Hi all, I have a Fermentasaurus on loan from my brother so I can try before I buy. I've got an XPA in there at the moment I pitched on Saturday (three days old now) but I've noticed I'm getting a lot of yeast/trub - from the 5L mark down it's looking quite white I'm not sure if it's just sticking to the sides or if this is all cake (pic attached, I dumped that first bottle last night)..

How often roughly should I be collecting/dumping through the little bottles? At which point ideally should I be collecting for yeast harvesting? It's a bit different than my old plastic fermenter which I'd just keep everything in for two weeks and then transfer to my second FV for bottling. I'm assuming I have to keep dumping otherwise when I get to bottling I'm going to struggle getting a good clear flow going..
Click to expand...
I'd leave it for the moment. The trub bottle is still quite empty. As the fermentation slows/completes, more yeast will drop out of suspension.

If you are planning to bottle through the bottom port, then I would wait for the trub to condense/the bottle is full, then empty and let it fill up again.

I'm also assuming you're not using the pressure kit?
 
^ ^ hey, there is no need to dump or remove the yeast bottle during fermentation unless you plan to dryhop from that bottle which i wouldnt reccommend.

the yeast will land on that area but you can see there is heaps of space in the bottle below for yeast.

So when you cold crash the beer, you should see 95% of that yeast fall into the collection bottle and be about 90% full when you package the beer.

have you got pressure on the FV ?
 
Thanks guys! No pressure kit on this one, the plan is to buy my own with a pressure kit and then work out where to get a spunding valve from etc., I only bottle at the moment, no kegs, no CO2 (apart from the sodastream, ha)!

Obviously it would be better to rack from the top down, rather than the bottom up, so I'm not sure how I'm going to manage this just yet! :/
 

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